Christmas morning

It seemed like such a great idea at the time.

But only ended in tragedy.

Infamy

And this Christmas will go down in infamy as the year my children received frozen dead caterpillars for Christmas.

Yep, forgot to check the mail yesterday and of course the caterpillars for the Butterfly Garden came. Whoops.

Omen

I know many of you can't understand my fear of flying. In fact >> I << don't really understand it. I understand numbers and statistics, etc. but for some reason my fear is ever intensening even though reason tells me I am safer flying than eating cheetos.

Just to give you an idea...when someone says to me "you know, flying is actually safer than driving" it would be the equivalent of someone telling you that "walking on a tightrope between two skyscrapers is actually much safer than walking across the street on the ground". You think "YEAH RIGHT!" and even if it is safer, you don't want to go through the anxiety and the stress of actually having to walk on that tightrope. You want to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground, you're comfortable there, you are in control there. It's safe. No anxiety.

When my parents announced over a year ago that they wanted to take the entire family on a cruise, I was SO excited! Especially because we were living in Austin and Houston was a mere three hour DRIVE away. It was so perfect!

Well...here we are in Utah and the cruise is about three weeks away. I simply cannot bring myself to book my airline tickets. I was really close the other day, I had the tickets up on the screen. I was about to call and then my chest would tighten up so I could hardly breath, and my heart was beating so fast it hurt.

Some things that I go through that you might not when booking airfare...

* I stew about which flight I choose becaus I am choosing my destiny! What if I pick the wrong one and it is a horrible flight?
* What is the weather going to be like? Houston has lots of thunderstorms, I want no part of landing or taking off in a thunderstorm!
* I research the type of plane that each flight is...what is the plane's safety record? Etc. It's really awesome (not) how wikipedia articles about different types of planes list all of the accidents and incidents that type of plane has been in.
* What time of day is the flight? I don't want some pilot who was out drinking the night before flying me out at 6AM. Nor do I want an exhausted pilot who has flown 24 hours straight to fly my plane at 11:00PM.
* What if the pilot has a death wish?

I know these things seem silly to you. I really can't explain it. Certainly you are slightly crazy in your own little ways too. And your fears probably seem irrational to me. For instance, what stresses Blaine out about flying is making sure he checks in properly and finds the right gate. Are you freaking kidding me? What is scary about that? Finding a gate number???

We watched a 20/20 recently about Howie Mandel and his battle with being OCD. The guy washes his money. He was on a vacation with his kids and one of hids kids pants brushed against his hand (or something!) and he had to go back home to shower and change. So he goes through all of this angst and horror in his everyday life and then has no problem hopping on a personal jet and flying 300 days a year. I cannot understand that!

I cannot understand his personal fear, but I can relate to the dilemma.

Anyway. I finally sucked it up, again. I was going to book the ticket. I was driven because I had missed so many sales and the airfare price went up AGAIN and I know that soon I am going to have to fork out TONS of money for these tickets. So I log on and prepare for the battle to purcahse tickets, which certainly will take most of the day ... and first I check the news. Awesome.

Now I physically and emotionally won't be able to do it. At least not for a while.

Anyway, pray for me because man, I HATE THIS. I don't like being this way. I want to be excited about my cruise but I can't be until I am there because of this ridiculous obstacle. That's right, I know it is ridiculous thank you very much : )

Merry Christmas !

This can't be sanitary...

I used to have no good reason for why my behind was glued to the computer chair all day, at least now I can say, "because when I leave the computer chair Bentley takes off his diaper and pees on it.".

I'm an eternal optimist.

Proof

And this is so ironic given my last post, but my day went something like this...

9:30AM : Ho hum, I suppose if I am going to order any Christmas presents online I better order them today or else they wont get here in time.

9:30AM-10:30AM: * mulling over gift options *

10:31AM: Eureeka! I've got it! I'll order him a book of LSAT tests...hmmm...there are two different options..."10 Actual, Official, LSAT Preptests" and "The next 10 Actual, Official LSAT Preptests". Hmmmm... I don't think he has one of these books but just in case, I will order "the next ten".

10:32AM: Place Amazon order

11:30AM: Email from Blaine "here are a list of books I might like to help me study for the LSAT...blah blah blah... oh and a book of official LSAT tests, I already have one so be sure to check and not order the same one

11:32AM: * open the nightstand drawer to see The Next 10...."

11:33AM: Lots of stomping and mormonized cursing

11:40AM: Log back in to amazon, maybe I can cancel it! Nope, it is already being prepped to ship! How did Blaine's LSAT book become Amazons #1 priority this morning? I have no idea.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

GRRRRRRR.

The end.

Torn Soul, er...sole

I hate when Blaine ruins surprises. The funny thing is that he never tries to (like me). He just innocently says something like, "wow, it would be really awesome to get some new socks for Christmas this year". Then I throw my hands up in the air, roll my eyes very exaggeratedly and storm out of the room. I throw myself upon the bed and cry out, "Why! Why do you have to ruin everything! WHHHHHYYYYYY!" Then I grab the tube socks out of the drawer and thrust them into his arms and pout "here, here's your dang tube socks! I hope you like them". And then I don't talk to him for the remainder of the day and he is left with a puzzled look on his face and a bruised ego.

Yeah, Christmas time is stressful at this house. I'm not sure where my freakoutedness comes from. I, for one, am all about sneaky around and finding my Christmas presents early. It's a habit I developed early in my youth when my parents would sleep in until some unearthly hour on Christmas morning, like 6AM, and I simply couldn't stand it, so at 3AM I would go sort through my stocking and have my own little pre-Christmas show.

But whoa baby, if I get you a present you better not guess what it is. Or it is sooooo over.

Yesterday we were forced to walk through three feet of mooshy snow slush to get to church. It was awful. I was wearing dainty little flats and Blaine was wearing his decade old Sunday shoes which are cracked right down the sole. We may as well have just had our feet sitting in an ice bath all Sunday long. He said, he needed new church shoes. I demanded he carry me and all three children directly to the shoe store to buy boots, the ox was definitely in the myer. (meyer? Mier? My-errrrr). He wouldn't concede to that. I happened the mention that maybe someone would get him Church shoes for Christmas. I like to mess with his mind like that.

So today I sent him this email...

"So um.....I am writing this blog post about shoes and I was just wondering your opinion. In general do you prefer black shoes or brown? Do you find that regular shoes wear out as fast as dress shoes? As a shoe wearing person, do you prefer church shoes that can double as regular shoes or definite, shiny, blatantly obvious church shoes? Thanks, your information will definite help with my...blog post".

He for sure thinks he is getting shoes for Christmas, and all I have to say is....I hope you are all excited for this blog post coming down the pipes about shoes, cuz, whoa doggy, it's gonna be good.

17 Again

Dear Body:

We're 28 now. I've noticed you've started producing a lot of gray hair. I've also noticed you are still pretty gung ho about the zit thing. I demand you choose one or the other. Zits or Gray hair. Not both. Seriously.

Yours in eternal puberty,

Kristi

Matthew

So the good news about being a fence sitting granola is that I only have to be granola-ish when it is convenient for me. Never was that so evident as today when I was looking in my shopping cart and noticed the irony of having aluminum-free deodorant sitting next to my hair-dye, which I am pretty sure has far worse things in it than aluminum.

Speaking of aluminum free deodorant...isn't facebook awesome? One night at 1:45AM I was reading reviews for aluminum free deodorant, I posted something on facebook about my voyage. By morning an old friend from highschool had responded that he worked for a company that makes aluminum free deodorant and it happens to be in Lehi and could he drop me off a sample of it? (sample meaning two full size sticks that retail for like eleven dollars a piece). Now if that isn't amazing I don't know what is.

The unfortunate thing though is that when he came to drop off said deodorant (that same day!) I was gone and he left it in a planter box. Then a blizzard came through, and by the time I got to the planter box the deodorant was gone and the sack ripped to shreds. Kind of makes me nervous that there are bears roaming the neighborhood or something. But you can't say he didn't try... and luckily I had read some reviews and had found that Walgreens carries a highly rated aluminum free deodorant. And they have it for a normal deodorant price, not the outrageous price posted on the amazon link.

Anyway, I am interested to hear what little things you are doing to try to keep your family healthy and cancer free! I will try to do it too if it doesn't inconvenience me too much ; )

P.S. Matthew Mcconaughey doesn't wear any deodorant at all. Not even the crystal weird goopy stuff. Kind of gross.

Odd

Yesterday we had a family in our ward over for dinner. I had noticed earlier in the day that one of their daughters had my same birthday. Later that night at dinner we were talking about birthdays and get this...

Their daughter and I were born on December 9th
Their other daughter and Gwen were October 23rd
The wife and Blaine are both September 23rd

Someone please tell me the odds of that happening : ) I am going to take it as a sign that we are meant to be friends. Ironically that cancels the negative sign of my awesome cheesecake turning out to be nothing more than a hot pudding pile at dessert time.

Luckily there was one more good sign... it turns out that they know the Worthington's...and if you'll recall, we have really good luck with people who know the Worthingtons :)

The Butterfly Garden

This is one of the toys that we are looking at getting Gwen for Christmas. Since her only wish is for binoculars (?!?) we decided to run with the "discovering nature" theme. So I was reading reviews about this thing (you get the kit and then fill out a form for them to send you real live catepillars, etc.), and everyone loves it, and then I cam across this totally random snarky review...it made me laugh.

October 28, 2009 The Catepillars are not meant to be eaten!!
by Ryan G.

"I really cheated myself out of the best part of the butterfly garden by devouring the caterpillars mercilessly before they reached the cocoon stage."


What the?

Cheapskate

Janssen posted today about how much she loves me. It's a good feeling, and it's all because I told her about ebates. Surely you remember ebates, right? I guess I haven't shameless plugged them in months, maybe even a year. Anyway, tell them I sent you (unless you know Janssen and you like her better, in which case tell them she sent you). Anyway, the point is, I want more people to love me, so I am going to tell you about another website that saves me money!

One day a long time ago an instant message popped up from a random friend on gchat. "I just bought like a million diapers for cheap!" I inquired how she got such a fabulous deal. And she told me about fatwallet. And then my life changed.

Fatwallet works much in the same way that ebates does, though to be perfectly honest, I've never used their cashback links. It's probably worth checking them out to see if the offer a higher percentage cash back than ebatest for the store you are shopping for.

But what the really great thing is about fatwallet are the forums. If you go to the page, click on forums, then click on hotdeals. Then click on the categories that you are interested in. I am lazy and I look for deals with lots of green by the titles, that means they are awesome. Red means they are not so awesome.

The diapers? Way green. Bought like a hundred packages, still using the ones I bought, nearly a year later. It was an online deal from Walgreens, I think I wound up paying about $0.09 a diaper, shipped, to my door.

Other green deals?

Dress shirts from Lands End for $15 - shipped.

My new digital camera for $350, normally $500!

And today?

an 8.5oz package of Godiva chocolate covered cashews for $1.50 a package.

How do these random people find these deals? I don't know. They are totally random. Guess where I got the Godiva chocolate? Staples. That's right, the office supply store. Those suckers were normally $15 a pop (who would pay that, I have no idea, but they are certainly worth more than a buck fifty, even to me!).

So that is how I got a lovely Christmas gift for Blaine's boss, Gwen's preschool teacher and Blaine's Dad for a buck fifty a piece.

They even had these compiled spread sheets to make your black friday shopping easier. A whole document just on deals on giant TVs all organized by size and store and price and awesomeness. I can't imagine devoting that much time to the greater good. But I'm sure glad other people do!

Go and relish in the fatwalleters.

Not sure if they give referral bonuses, but if they do, tell them I sent you (kristi.bassett@gmail.com). Duh.

; )

Clean Slate

So, here it is December 1st. 48 days until the cruise. Judging from my last (and only) cruising experience, a cruise is nothing but a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week non-stop eat-fest. You may recall me announcing that I was going off of sugar for the month of November. You may not know this but...I failed, miserably. It's almost like because I set that goal I ate more sugar than usual. I am very disappointed in myself. Very. But, it's December 1st! I have a clean slate, and December is probably the hardest month to go without sugar, which makes it the most important month to go without sugar.

But what are the holidays if you can't sip hot chocolate, topped with a mountain of fluffy whipped cream, by a crackling fire with all your loved ones gathered near? And what is a holiday party withought eating chocolate covered pretzels and pies and candies and fudge and...well, you get the idea.

So I am in distress. I've got to do something! The way I see it, I go on a vacation sans children once every...I dunno, ten years or so. I've got to make it count. I've got to be on my A game.

So here are some ideas. And just pretend you are emotionally invested in my success or something.

1- No sugar at all. No artificial sweetners at all. Nothing. Zero. Zip for the entire month of December.

2- No sugar at all, except one serving of one type of dessert per holiday party (holiday party constitutes something that Blaine and I are at together with 10 or more people)

3-Screw it. All the sugar I want, all the time, you only live once!

4- Open to other suggestions.

And on a much happier note. Anyone ever been to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, or uh....is it Cozumel? I think. I am chalking away Grand Cayman for scuba diving, but if you've been to the other ports of call...what do you recommend doing?

I'm so excited!

$5

Because when it only costs $5 to ride a camel in a parking lot

why on Earth wouldn't you?

Turkey

It's been a rough couple of months.

Stress from moving

Stress for renting out our home

Stress from Blaine's commute

Stress about the swine flu

Stress about economic collapse


But in the end, I have so much to be grateful for.

Especially this little girlie.

And I'm grateful for the perspective she gives me. Sometimes I think the only way I am making it through the trials of the last few months is with the perspective I now have of how truly precious life is.

It can be taken in a heartbeat, and I am so thankful it wasn't.

I love this little turkey.

In which I am nearly obliterated by large meteor

So....I am never going to sleep, ever, ever, EVER again. I cannot believe I missed this! Seriously. Watch the videos and check out the 911 calls! I guess in a way I am glad I didn't see it because surely I would have died of heart failure.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

ksl.com - Meteor lights up early morning sky, alarms Utahns

Finally!

Finally a decision that I am excited to stew about for days and days.

It won't affect my life whatsoever

It has no lasting consequences (unless I get food poisoning)

Noone cares what I choose

Life will go on if I make the wrong choice

It affects noone but myself

Are you ready?

What should I pre-order for Blaine's company Christmas party dinner? I will choose whatever gets the most votes. Unless you choose #3.

1) Lemon Pressed Chicken Breast (with artichokes, polenta, chorizo and shaved mimolette)
2)Capalleni pasta and zuccini ribbons with mushrooms, overnight tomatoes and warm oil vinagarette
3)Maple Brined Grilled Pork Chop (with pinoche, pancetta, roasted apples, and grilled radicchio)


I LOVE THESE KINDS OF DECISIONS!

Far Fallen Fruit

You can tell a lot about a person from their parents. Blaine is smart. His Dad is smart. Blaine is organized, his mom is organized. The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, that's what I've always heard and it seems to be true in many many instances. I've met many of your mothers and they are all upstanding citizens. Baking cookies, darning socks, listening to MoTab.

So, I am a little concerned for myself.

My Mom (yes the one who painted the infamous sign) sent me an email today, and this was her signature.

I think I may need professional help.

The Giver

I am just going to be upfront about this, I am a horrible gift giver.

If it really is the thought that counts then I'm not too shabby but if it is the actual gift? Horrible.

Especially when it comes to my parents. They're good people. They are great gift givers. And all they really want from life are gift cards to Sizzler. Truly. Going out to dinner makes them happy. But the thing is...how lame and unthoughtful is it to give your parents a gift card to Sizzler every. single. year?

Very.

So I conjure, imagine, think, stew, meditate. And I come up with really great ideas! Like the year I gave my dad, whose back has hurt for his entire life, a certificate for a massage. See? Thoughtful! Useful! Non-generic.

He never got the massage. (I got one by the way and it was hands down the creepiest thing I have ever done....."disrobe to your level of comfort" ....psh...another post for another day). The certificate expired, and my twenty five bucks was as good as flushed down the proverbial toilet.

He would have been much happier enjoying steak and all you can eat shrimp. Twice!

Then in 2007 Bentley was born. Both of my parents came out to visit. We had a grand ol' time watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" together. My parents laughed, my dad genuinely enjoyed himself (you don't realize how amazing it is for my dad to enjoy a movie...or at least admit to enjoying a movie). So... a few months later... an entire season of Everybody Loves Raymond was shipped to their house for Christmas. Upon visiting them the next Christmas, a full YEAR later....the Raymond Season was still in its shrink wrap, tucked on the movie shelf, dusty, unloved.

There goes that $30.

So what's a person to do? My most successful gift was when, on his fiftieth birthday, I gave him a cane with a horn and a rearview mirror. It got some good laughs and use for that day. Same thing with the time I got him a "Bop It".

But come on! My parents have done a lot for me. I really want to show them how much I appreciate them and how much I love them. And I want to do it for about fifty bucks. So I can't buy them a cruise. Or their own Sizzler franchise.

Do I give in? Do I give them a Sizzler gift certificate?

HELP!

On the fence

Being a fence sitter is THE WORST. It really is. It makes making any sort of decision impossible. I wish I could just be a die hard ___(insert something to have an opinion about here)____. Then decisions would be so easy because I would feel so strongly one way or another.

As it is I get all worked up about something and then hear one opposing argument and then I think about it and can start to see that side and before I know it I am completely on the fence, yet again.

So, not to open a can of worms or anything but....swine flu.

I've always been in moral angst about the flu vaccine. On the one hand....never had the flu. On the other....don't really want the flu. I always got it for my kids and then one year my friends mom died from complications that arose from getting a flu shot. Agh! Isn't that awful? You do something you think is healthy for you and then...? So then I started getting all angst ridden every year but would usually opt to get the vaccine, and feel kind of sick about that decision.

And yes, people die from the flu too.

There's no winning I tell you.

I hate making important decisions. I really do. Yes I understand that there haven't been long term studies on the swine flu vaccine, but I also underestand that it is a disease running rampant and that people are getting really sick and dying. I know it has preservatives in it...but, people are getting sick and dying. I know I should be able to prevent it by frequent hand washing and gargling with salt water and clapping three times and doing a cartwheel before bed. I've been trying for five years to get Gwen to not pick her nose, totally not happening, even with a rampant virus around. She doesn't care.

People I am in angst! I am totally with the people who think the vaccine is scary and could give you GBS and I am totally with the people who think those people are idiots.

What's a fence sitter to do?

Tell me what you did? Why?

I feel like I wouldn't be able to live with myself either way. If we get the kids vaccinated and something horrible happens, I can't live with myself. If I don't get them vaccinated and something horrible happens, I can't live with myself.

See Blaine Run

On New Years Eve 2004 Blaine set a resolution to run in the St. George Marathon in October of 2005. He had never really been in to running before, so as you can imagine, it was a somewhat lofty goal. On January 1, 2005 he set out for his first run. He made it all of a half a mile and came back huffing and puffing and realizing more exactly how lofty his resolution had been.


But if there's one thing Blaine has, it's determination. He has a stick-to-it-ness that I seriously lack. I am a big quitter. Not Blaine. He went out running every. single. day. It was amazing and inspiring to watch his progression.


But there was only one problem. All of this running was taking a lot of time, and it left me home with a screaming baby. Totally not cool.


So we bought a jogging stroller.

[Pretend this is a picture of Blaine pushing a cute baby Gwen in a jogging stroller]

[we got a new computer! : ) All my pictures are still on the old computer : ( ]

And Blaine and Gwen would go running together while I relaxed. It was what Michael Scott would call "a win-win-win". Exercise (with extra resistance!) for Blaine, peace and quiet for me, exciting scenery for Gwen. Perfection.


They ran together in Provo, they ran together in Oregon, they ran together in Provo again, and then in Minnesota, and then in Provo once more.


As Gwen grew older they would have talks on the runs and it was something they both looked forward to.


We move to Texas and they ran there. Bentley was born and a month later we upgraded to a double jogging stroller, and the three of them would go running.


We got two dogs and he would take them running too.

Many things changed about their runs; the locations, the distance, the company, but one thing stayed the same. Always Gwen and Dad.

I bet Gwen has logged well over a thousand miles in strollers in her short life so far.


It's complicated matters now that we have three kids. I've seen triple joggers around, but that is just getting a bit ridiculous. Plus, Ivy is the best baby in the history of mankind and I live for spending solo time with her. So Ivy would stay with me while the others would go out running.


Then the other day we strapped Gwen and Bentley in the stroller.


We both stood there looking at Gwen. Then we both looked at eachother. And it was then that we realized that Gwen is just simply too big to go on runs anymore. She doesn't fit in the stroller.


And it was a sad, sad day. For all of us. But especially me. And Blaine.

I'm trying to be like

Rallllllphie. Well, kind of. I'm at least trying to get a decent picture of my children once in a while. One time I asked Ralphie why some pictures she took did not include the heads of the subjects, she told me it's all about capturing human interaction. And sometimes that doesn't involve heads.

So with that in mind, I set out to take some pictures of my adorable children.

But my children don't hold hands or dance around in tutus, frolic in meadows or walk alongside railroad tracks or really anything too pictorally cute. Instead they give eachother wet willies.

And poke eachother's eyeballs.

And pull out eachother's pacifiers

I guess we will stick with the individual shots for now !

And just so you know, I am totally aware that this post is center justified and that it is weird. Apparently when I upload pictures from picasa directly to blogger it forces me to do it this way. Either that or I am just too lazy to figure it out, oh well.

Brahbra

Happily Ever After

Blaine has a big beef with romantic comedies. He thinks they create unrealistic expectations and is certain that no man can ever live up to his fictitious, romantic, spontaneous, thoughtful, flirty, knight in shining armor counter part. So whenever I complain that he never dances with me in the rain, or yadda yadda yadda, he comes back with, "the next time you stop me in the middle of a furious argument and kiss me, that is when I will start dancing in the rain." Apparently the women of romantic comedies are setting unrealistic expectations for us too. Because seriously, I would never EVER kiss anyone in the middle of an argument. EVER. And that does seem to happen a lot in romantic comedies.

Keeping that in mind...

I have a bad habit of dumping glasses of cold water on him when he is in the shower. I think it is a remnant of my girls camp counselor past. Back then it was seen as a token of love when someone would dump cold water on you in the shower-- the bigger the bucket and the colder the water, the more the person respected you. It's true. And so I still get a thrill of sneaking a glass into the bathroom and hearing Blaine's shrieks as I dump the water on him. It gives me a rush.

The other day I had just finished showering, blow drying my hair, putting on my make up, etc. I happened to be wearing my last clean pair of underclothes and my last clean pair of pants (apparently I am on a laundry strike). I took the toothbrushes out of the toothbrush holder and filled it up with water and went in to the shower and dumped the water on Blaine. It was out of love. Really. And it's not like it was even that cold.

To my surprise he chased me down, and while normally I am quick and get out of the area before he can strike back with a cup of his own; this time he caught me. And he didn't dump a cup of water on me. He threw me, all primped and pampered for the day, into the tub, with the shower on. And held me in there. For a long time.

I was drenched.

I was furious.

He said if it were a romantic comedy I would have smothered him with kisses.

So I punched him in the gut and didn't talk to him for four hours.

Jerk.

Of Mice and Men

One of the major reasons I had hesitations about moving to Texas (besides the fact that I thought it was a barren wasteland) was the whole bug/insect/ROUS(rodents of unusual size) situation. As we were moving in we found a very large cockroachy looking thing on the top of our cupboards. I was sufficiently freaked. I called a pest control company and spent $60 every other month having them come and spray our house. I never saw a bug (except fire ants outside). After my year contract with the pest control people was over I cancelled.

I never did see any bugs inside. Maybe a few spiders, of the very small variety. I was quite pleased. Nor did I ever see any snakes/rodents on my property. Sure I saw a giant opossum crawling into a sewer near Ralphie's house (gag!), and we saw an escaped boa constrictor smooshed to pieces on the road; but those were both far enough away from my place that I always felt pretty safe.

Now, Shauna might tell you otherwise. She found a rattlesnake in her garage. She also had the kind of spiders that, if you smashed them, their million little baby spiders would disperse and take over your house. Jamee just found a snake in her house, Ish saw a copperhead(?) while she was weed whacking, Jamie shot a giant snake in her backyard with a BB gun (girl power!). Oh and of course we can't forget that Chelon has posted no less than four pictures of scorpions she has found in her house during the last few months *shudder*.

But somehow we found a little bug free, critter free, happy little mecca there in Round Rock.

So you can imagine my surprise when, on about our second day here, I opened the closet to see a mouse running around in there. A mouse. In my house. AGH. If you're on facebook you got to hear play by play the whole situation unfold. I had just gotten out of the shower, couldn't get in the closet because of the mouse. Was forced to fashion a toga out of a towel and wear that for the better part of the day.

A few days and several mouse traps later, we had still not seen the mouse again. I was beginning to believe it was nothing but a figment of my imagination. Then one day I heard a shrill womanesque scream come from the bathroom. Blaine saw the mouse. He ran in to make sure that we still had traps set in the closet. Turns out there was a mouse in there too! So now we officially had two mice. What's a woman to do?

It's funny how you can grow accustomed to having rodents fly out at you from closets and corners. The screaming, jumping, and broom thrashing become almost second nature.

It also helps that there are spiders the size of baseballs for you to kill once in a while.

A few weeks pass without a mouse sighting and our upstairs neighbors one day tell us they have seen the mice. I was kind of relieved, thinking maybe they were relocating to just upstairs.

The neighbors bought traps and, brace yourself, within twenty-four hours killed SEVEN mice. SEVEN. If that's not an infestation I don't know what is.

And then we killed another one.

And then nothing for another week.

And then I saw a mouse again yesterday.

And that is what has been going on at this house. Besides the poop. And the PBJs. A whole lot of girly screaming and broom smashing.

As my brother would say...

SIKE.

Okay, well not really. When I wrote the post yesterday it wasn't supposed to be a "sike". But really? A new computer? That changes everything.

The reasons for wanting to discontinue the blog were as follows

1- One of our computers has a bad virus and has been rendered unusable. The other is completely full of junk. I can't even put any more pictures on it because it is so full of stuff. Oh and also it is really slow. I wouldn't be surprised if one day I woke up and it only would run in DOS or something. It's dying a sloooooow and painful (for me) death. It's only five years old for crying out loud, but you would think it was a hundred. Oh and also the monitor blinks between regular color and green. Very annoying.

But that wasn't the real reason. The real reason is...

2- My life is pretty much "wake up, give baths, make PBJs, change dirty diapers, give more baths, do laundry of all the poopy clothes, make quesadillas, change more poop, give more baths, wash more clothes." rinse. repeat. Seriously, I don't know if I have mentioned it on here, and it's pretty gross...but Bentley has had explosive diarrhea since mid June. We've been to the doctor a lot, they say he will just grow out of it. But seriously? Four blowouts a day? Four baths a day? Four loads of poopy laundry a day? Doesn't really leave much time for having adventures or....anything. And really, who wants to read about poop? I mean, more than once in a while at least.

It broke my heart to say I was going to stop blogging, but really it had kind of happened already...I just hadn't said anything officially, you know? So it's not as though I was going to completely stop, it was more like I was just going to give you all permission to not check the blog, because more than likely it wouldn't be updated very often. Make sense?

But if I get a new computer....and if you all leave me ideas for something to blog about (besides poop and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), by all means, I would love nothing more than to keep blogging.

But seriously, in a big rut here. So...go on, give me something to blog about and I will do it.

As soon as the new computer arrives in the mail.

The blog brings me much, much happiness!

P.S. Thanks for the confidence boost. I honestly thought you had all probably given up on me. Knowing I still actually have readers is also kind of motivating.

The Grand Finale

Not sure if you've noticed, but my blog has been...well, dying. It's weird that I don't seem to have much to say anymore.

I have absolutely loved writing this blog. It brought me so much happiness. So thank you for reading and for caring. Thanks for laughing with/at me. Thanks mostly for just being a part of my life.

But now I am gracefully stepping out of the blogosphere.

Maybe I will be back to blogging someday, I'm not sure. I'll most certainly let you know if I start up another blog.

But for now...

I'm outta here.

You da' man

We were watching home videos today and it happened to be the video of Fathers Day 2008...well, it was a few days before Father's Day and I gave Blaine his gift. I remember wanting to post this video before but not really knowing how. Luckily we have an iphone now and it makes posting videos to YouTube a snap, so um...sorry that it is a year and a half late : )

I can't believe that Ivy is now older than Bentley was when this video was shot.

Hopefully there won't be another video like this anytime soon : )

And sorry about the quality, it's a video of a video, but Blaine's face is priceless...later in the clip (it was getting too long for comfort) he was like "oh man, I thought it was an ipod shuffle!"

Rainy days and Sundays

I miss Texas the most on Sundays. I've been struggling trying to figure out why, because every Sunday I kind of just have a little pit in my stomach of homesickness.


I think it is the very hardest during church. First of all, I miss walking in to sacrament meeting and seeing Ferg and Bishop Howell up on the stand. I miss that when all of my kids start screaming simultaneously during the meeting and I turn to leave, Ish sticking her tongue out at me and I miss the empathetic looks of a hundred people who love my kids almost as much as I do. I miss sitting next to Sheyenne in Sunday school and exchanging witty remarks with Dario. I miss going to the nursing room to visit Gina (er....change Ivy's diaper I mean). Then I miss being in young women's and our four young women. I miss seeing Betsy at the piano and seeing Lauree's happy face conducting and hearing one of Robin's wonderful lessons.


Then I miss being late to pick up Bentley from nursery because I stopped to talk to every single person I saw in the hallways.

What I miss the most is that I knew every person in the hallways. I knew something about them. I knew what they did at the last talent show. They are people who have seen me at my worst and who love me anyway. They are kind, wonderful, amazing people. They are my favorite people.

And I think the best way to describe it, is that "in a crowded room I feel alone". That's not to say that eventually I won't know and love everyone in my ward (congregation), but it takes time. I hadn't realized how comfortable I was in Texas. I knew the people at the check out lanes at HEB, my banker, the parents at the preschool, my neighbors, my fellow church goers, the librarians. And here I just see strangers.

It's amazing to me you know...when a new person showed up at church in Round Rock they were almost bombarded with people introducing themselves and inviting them to dinner or dessert or something! It was almost hard to sneak an introduction in because they were so busy getting to know everyone. We've gone to our new ward for two weeks and no one has come and sat by me in relief society, no families have really introduced themselves to us in sacrament meeting, it's just so interesting the difference.

So way to go Round Rockians!

I miss you! Especially on Sundays.

Kristi Vs. Wild

Ahhhhh. Nothing beats a late summer day spent at the cabin. A little rock hunting, hiking, pb&j eating, you get the idea. A delightful day, indeed.

We bid our friends farewell and had to finish a few last things before we could go. Change a diaper, get one more refreshing drink from the water fountain, basically stay in the canyon as long as we could because it was such a perfect day. I was heading over to get a drink when I heard some twigs snap. I looked up and to my surprise saw...

A GIANT moose. A giant, hungry, man eating moose, no doubt. See those logs there at the bottom of the picture? Moments before (maybe three minutes?) I was standing on the tallest log and jumping off onto the rope swing (see the rope cutting across the picture?). Frankly, I am amazed that I was not gored mid-flight!

I had a little panic attack since moose are known to be a bit...mmm...tempermental. I scrambled to get the kids in the car and then we were able to watch the majestic moose eat and meander. I thought I ought to take some pictures, lest I be known as the girl who cried "giant man eating moose".

But then he gave me a menacing kind of look.

and we left. Promptly.

The END.

iphoney

Have I mentioned that my phone got washed? As in went-through-an-entire-cycle-of-our-washing-machine washed?

It was sweet really. I was having a hard day and heading out the door and teasingly said to Blaine, "you better finish doing all of our laundry while I am gone." Which was really a joke because I had just done all of our laundry. But good ol' Blaine, he found the clothes I had just changed out of as well as a whole bunch of clothes in a laundry basket (which I had just gotten out of the drier but hadn't folded, but I digress...) to wash.

Unfortunately my phone was in my pants. On the good word of the entire facebook population, I put the phone in a bag of rice and let it sit for several days. But it was too far gone and when I tried to turn it back on it let out a few courtesy vibrations and a couple flashes and then died once and for all.

So I've been searching for a new phone. I've always gotten the basic model. I don't text or do anything fancy. But getting a new phone would commit me to it for TWO years, that's a long time!

And Blaine's dad has this really awesome iphone

and

and

and

internet EVERYWHERE I GO! Google maps right at my finger tips! Plus you just push a button and say "call Ralphie" and it does it. Who wouldn't want that?

Well, I still didn't particularly care but happened to be looking at the att website the other day and navigated away to another page when from across the room Blaine squeeled (screeched? yelled? bellowed?) "WAAAAAIIIIIIIT, GO BACK! WHAT WAS THAT...GO BACKKKKKKK"

and back I went.

He had seen over my shoulder that the iphone now has a "rhapsody" app.

and oh my, even I could hear the hallelujah chorus going in Blaine's mind.

It's like his dream, his number one fantasy, has come true!

All of his music, his phone, everything, on one device.

He had to have it. He simply just HAD to have it.

He was willing to get a second job, donate plasma, sell vital organs, ANYTHING to get his hands on this iphone.

And I can respect that, I really can. He doesn't ask for much in life, and have you seen the guys CD collection? I am confident he is musics biggest fan.

So I came up with a plan! A foolproof, happy, wonderful, amazing plan!

See his birthday is coming up in eleven days. So my plan was to tell him that we had to wait until Christmas to get iphones...make sure a few more rent checks clear... get settled in our new place... save some money... blah blah blah.

Then for his birthday I was going to buy some "fake" presents. You know...nice sweater, pocket protectors, corn nuts, the usual.

Then late at night when he thought it was just another birthday, just like every. other. birthday. I would pull out a cute little white package. His eyes would light up like fire. He'd unwrap it and suddenly not only would it be the best birthday EVER, but it would be the best day of his entire life.

And I would instantly become the best wife ever.

It was so perfect! So amazingly perfect.

He is always doing creative, fun, surprising stuff for our anniversary and I am always handing him new tube socks wrapped in wal-mart grocery sacks for all of his special occasions. It's embarrassing really.

So this was perfect!

But GOODnight. The guy would not stop talking about this stinking iphone. It was consuming his every thought. His every waking and sleeping moment was pure torture simply because the world's best gadget existed and he didn't have it.

On our drive up to the mountains yesterday I was like, "so... I've been doing a lot of thinking and" then he interrupted "AND WE SHOULD STOP AT THE ATT STORE RIGHT NOW AND GET MATCHING IPHONES!" to which I scoffed and said, "um no. I'm thinking we should wait till Christmas to get our iphones".

And then it was like world ended. I can only think of like two times I have ever seen him more distraught. Seriously, the blood drained from his face, he put his head in his hands and faintly whimpered, "really?".

And then during the whole campout it was like

"oh man, we are lost, if I had an iphone I could figure out where we are"
"if I only had an iphone I could be writing you love poetry RIGHT NOW"
"if I had an iphone we could watch LOST in the middle of the night while we are camping"
"if I had an iphone we could find better firewood"
"if I had an iphone there would be WORLD PEACE, would you deny the world of world peace? Really, WOULD YOU?"

and it persisted on and on until today I finally just belted out my secret.

And there will be no best birthday ever.

Because he ruined it.

But wasn't that such an awesome idea I had?

Please, validate me : )

Update

Wow blogger friends, it's been a while, hasn't it?

Not much going on here. Well, lots is going on, but nothing good has been going on.

Until today, things started looking up today, so I am peeking out into the blogosphere and letting everyone know that we are still alive.

We've had some struggles since moving to Utah, but hopefully those will resolve themselves. We are moving into a basement apartment in Lehi next week, so that's good. It's a daylight basement so that's even better. I think we will be happy there and hopefully the commute won't be too hard on Blaine or any of us. Luckily there is a park nearby and a trail, and a freeway.

I know you are wondering what I have missed the most while not having my earthly posessions.

There are only two things I miss

*my bed
* double stroller.

How the double stroller did not make it in the "take to Utah immediately" pile I do not know, but that was a grave grave mistake. Same thing with the bed, but that one is more understandable.

It kind of makes me think I could throw everything else away because I haven't missed much else.

The kids are loving being near their grandparents.

I am not liking that already the mornings are cool enough to wear jackets.

Ivy is growing like a weed. She is still as sweet as ever. Oh man I love her.

Bentley is turning two and in honor of that has limited his vocabulary to "NO" , "NO WAY," "NOOOOOOOO", "Don't want to", "let go a' me" and "MINE!". Which is really awesome. I love him too.

Gwen is starved of attention. Everytime I walk by her I hear a plea of "pluhhhhheasssse play with me". I love her too.

Overall our kids are doing remarkably well. What with having absolutely none of their things or their friends and moving about like gypsies, they are in good spirits and health and what more could one ask for.

I ache for Texas, and Ralphie, and Kawaii's, and my house.

But all things considered we are doing just fine.

Hope to be blogging again soon!

Winner!

Well, let's be honest, I had a pretty bad day today. My neighbor called yesterday to let me know that our renters have three giant dogs living at the house. I couldn't get ahold of my realtor for days. And much much more. But when I left for my "major award" ceremony, things started looking up.

I had to be there at 6PM and the drawing was at 6:30PM. Since no one was able to come and support me (ahem..?), I loaded up the children and headed out to the party.

We were pretty excited to meet a real life princess ("Miss Utah"). The guy from the newspaper wanted Gwen to pose with her for a picture, but she wouldn't. Bentley, however, was more than willing.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that in addition to my $50 Dan's gift card, free gallon of milk, container of cottage cheese, package of sausage, Fat Boy golf balls and package of Fat Boy products, I also got a nice binder full of coupons from your friend and mine, the grocery guru!

He told me that if I won the $5,000 he would help me turn it into $15,000. Sounded fair to me! Plus the binder was one that you could plug your mp3 player into and it had speakers in the actual binder. Who wouldn't want to listen to their "binderpod" while shopping?

A radio station was there and I spun the wheel and won tickets to the fair (woot!)



I scored a snazzy Fat Boy shirt too, but I couldn't put it on right then. What with wearing the baby and all.

And so the question on everybody's mind is, did I win?

Well

I've got good news for you

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

that guy is really. really. happy.

And it's probably just as well that I didn't win. I mean, who needs $5000 worth of groceries anyway? Plus it's not like our taxes aren't complicated enough already. My April 15th 2010 is going to be a lot less stressful than that guys. That's for dang sure.

So as to not walk away empty handed, we all ate FatBoys. Yes, even those of us who don't eat sugar. Especially those of us who don't eat sugar, actually.

Because when you come the closest you are probably ever going to get to getting a giant check handed to you, but then you don't actually get the giant check handed to you, you can't just walk away empty handed.

So, though the stresses of being a landlord and a renter are still weighing heavily on my shoulders, I had a nice evening.

And the children probably had a better one. What with Bentley nearly drowning himself in free Rootbeer, chocolate milk and fatboys.

And at the end of it all when Blaine took Gwen to the restroom and was waiting outside the door with her he could hear her talking to Miss Utah. For like twenty minutes.

And if that isn't a major award, I most certainly do not know what is.

Reason #923,495 that Jeannie is the awesomest person ever.

First of all, what kind of person reads a blog about two rascally dogs and then voluteers to take them for two weeks over CHRISTMAS?

And then volunteers to adopt the rascaliest puppy.

And then hooks you up with discount Schlitterbahn tickets

and then lets you eat the only strawberry on her strawberry plant

and then watches the other rascally puppy again.

And then the puppy escapes again.

And then you move away.

And then she does something like this.

Jeannie, that's who.

I'll love you forever Jeannie.

And Ralphie.

And Texas.

And Jeannie.

And Ralphie.

Infinity.

Keeping up with the Joneses.

Shauna J. She's a friend of a friend. Well actually now she is just a regular friend. But she used to be a friend of a friend.

Back when I had a grasp on my life, when I felt I was in control, I started to consider homeschooling Gwen. Meleah told me to contact Shauna. A friend who used to live in Texas but moved away.

So I did contact Shauna. And Shauna sent me the most wonderful e-mail about why she homeschools. It was awesome.

Before long Shauna and I got to chatting about other things. Important things, not important things.

Soon we realized that when she lived in Texas she had had the same floor plan that I currently had. Weird.

Weirder still? When I found out I was unexpectedly expecting, we realized that Shauna's kids were the same gender and spacing as mine.

It was almost creepy.

I like baking bread. Shauna likes baking bread.

I get horrendous morning sickness. Shauna gets horrendously even more morning sick than me.

She's afraid of heights. I'm afraid of planes.

I had to meet her. It wasn't like meeting a totally random, crazy Internet friend. One who really could be some fifty year old creep. Right? I mean, she was Meleah's friend! It was totally different than just meeting some random friend from the internet. Totally. I am anti random internet friend meeting (ahem, Mom) (MOM!).

So when we were here last year going to Disneyland I went and met Shauna.

Loved her. From the get go. She let me sit on her couch and vomit occasionally (as I had morning sickness) while she entertained my children.

So, I was pretty excited that moving to Utah I had a built in friend. One who misses Texas as much as I do. One who can reminisce how awesome Meleah is, how sweet Betsy is, how awesome the Millett's are. One who could lament that Utah doesn't have access roads on the freeways, that there are no gecko's on the side of the house at night, etc. etc.

It's been great! Shauna and I have been tearing Utah apart. We've gone to a cabin, to a farm, to Cabella's.

But the thing is...Shauna J. doesn't eat sugar. As in...ever. Not even in jam. Or peanut butter.

So I had to try it, right? I mean, if Shauna J. thinks it wise to not eat sugar, it has to be wise, right?

Plus she lost twenty pounds by simply taking sugar out of her diet.

Simply. Ha.

So, I pose to you this question. If you had to do without sweets or savories, for the rest of your life, which would you choose? Think carefully.

Because I am much more of a sweet person than a savory one. I mean, I am not opposed to either but the savories just aren't cutting it.

But I trust Shauna J.

Though she does enjoy running, something that I will probably never understand.

(It's okay though, she says I can ride my bike alongside).

Major Award

I'VE WON A MAJOR AWARD!

I am totally not kidding!

The other day I was minding my own business, shopping at the local grocery store and I saw a little box where you could enter to win a $5000 shopping spree. I thought, eh what have I got to lose?

So I entered

flash forward to today. I am sitting here in distress writing out checks to pay for Blaine's traffic ticket, my um...ticket, Ivy's hospital bill, insurance payments and security deposits. Feeling kind of down

but then Bryce from Fat Boy called and left a message!

I called him back to find that I didn't win the $5000....yet

BUT I did win a major award! A gift certificate to Dan's AND some free meadowgold products (which is awesome now that I am going without sugar for a month).

And I have to show up to the Sandy's Macey's on August 28th for the drawing to win the five grand! So come to Macey's and maybe if we bring enough karma I will win the five grand!

I've never won a major award before! It's stinking AWESOME!

Case Closed

Several months ago my neighbor Annie moved. Since she was going to be in a temporary place for a while she brought me her plants so I could tend them while she was transient. I loved the plants and did a half decent job keeping them alive and well.

As we were cleaning our house during our final days in Texas I called my neighbor, Angela, and recruited her to become the plant sitter upon my departure. Meanwhile, a couple days earlier, Annie had called Blaine and asked him to leave her plants with my other neighbor Cheryl. Blaine told me this after I had made ten trips across the street to Angela's house to drop off the plants.

I figured they would all figure it out later since they all see each other all the time.

Flash forward three weeks to my facebook inbox where I have a message waiting from Cheryl.

Cheryl tells me that someone has taken Annie's plants off of her front porch!

Sounds like the neighborhood has really gone to pot since I left, right? But what was Cheryl doing with the plants in the first place?

Let me explain....

about a week after we left Texas I got a call from our future renters asking if they could leave some of their things in our garage to store them until they officially moved in the next week. I was fine with that so Monse (future renter) loaded their stuff in the garage and left the plants outside.

A few days later Cheryl was walking by, saw the plants and figured they were Annie's plants and took them to her house to water and care for.

When Monse officially moved in she noticed her plants were missing and then noticed they were on one of the neighbor's front porches, so she took them back.

Cheryl notices the plants are gone and calls Annie to ask if she picked them up.

Annie had not picked them up.

Hence the hullaballoo.

I loved it! I bet Monse was thinking she moved into a pretty shady hood. I guess Cheryl went over and explained and now things are all settled and the plants remain unscathed at Angela's house.

Oh man...I miss that neighborhood!

Miracle on Plume Grass Place

Janssen was harrassing me this morning about not posting on my blog. Alright, mostly she just casually mentioned that I hadn't posted in a while, it's me who has been harassing myself about it.

The thing is, something happened. My world got rocked two weeks ago, and when I sit down and try to post something trivial or humorous or anything really it just feels fake. What happened is always on the forefront of my mind. Even when I start thinking about something else for a while I get snapped back to the reality, seriousness and gravity of that day. And that is when it becomes hard to breathe. Hard to eat. Hard to sleep.

It's not a story I am proud to share, excited to share, or that I am even willing to share (especially not in blog form).

Suffice it to say that I made a mistake and that mistake very, very easily could have cost Ivy her life. In fact. It should have cost that.

Though I am not up for going into the details and specifics, there are a few valuable lessons that I feel like I must share.

First, I know, more than I know anything, that miracles happen and that God has His hand in our lives. He is in control of everything. If it were not true Ivy would not be alive today. I was not deserving of a miracle, but I was granted one, I witnessed one. I lived one. And I feel like I need to share that with the world. Not only that I need to, I WANT to. I want to shout it from the rooftops. God lives!

Secondly, accidents and bad things happen. We all know that; we all know that I know that! But even still with all of my paranois, preparation and carefulness an accident still did happen. It can happen to anyone easily, even if you are careful. It only takes one time. One mistake. One moment when your mind is on something else and that moment can rock your world and change your life forever.

I have been blessed to feel gratitude. The moments of self accusation are few, the moments of self doubt are few. They are there, and when they hit they are more searing than anything I have ever felt; those moments are dark and terrifying. But I have been blessed with overwhelming sense of gratitude and that is the dominant emotion, and luckily gratitude is a warm, happy, good feeling. It's a testimony boosting, motivating, wonderful emotion. So I am grateful for that.

I apologize for being vague, but I felt I owe you an explanation for my absence in the blogosphere.

But fun posts are in the works--- I sat on a tube of sunscreen halfway through our drive to Utah and spent the rest of the trip in UV protected, slippery, coconut smelling jeans. Blaine's new office mate takes naps during lunch break on an actual cot in his office (am I the only person who finds that really funny? And resourceful!).

So don't give up on me just yet.

Oh and also go and give your kids a hug. My whole life has changed now that I know that Ivy is living on borrowed time, but the thing is, we all are. We're not promised anything and as wonderful and happy as things are now, things can change in an instant. Go on...get off the computer...play with your kids.

Woody

Pathetic fallacy. Ever heard of it?

It's when human characteristics are displayed in nature.

(Hello, Ms. Woodward? I may not remember the proper use of a semicolon but look at me pull out that writing device definition! Way to retain!).

Pathetic fallacy is what happened to me today. It rained for the first time in nearly a decade (or at least that's how long it feels like it has been). It rained because I am leaving Texas and the sky wept on my behalf. Or more likely - it rained because I had a photo shoot scheduled with Ralphie, and that is just how things are going with this move.

Check out the results here!.

The Oaf

A couple of nights ago we had a girls night out in our ward. It was awesome. I was gone until 3 AM. Seriously. Anyhow, over the course of the evening I was just thinking of how awesome Blaine is and what a sweet life we have together. He's sensitive, he listens to me, we can have dep conversations, yadda yadda yadda.

The next night our move was weighing heavy on my mind. I was looking out the window at a beautiful sunset and thinking how much I am going to miss the view we have from our bedroom. A canopy of green trees, amazing sunsets and fireworks from the local baseball diamond.

My interaction with Blaine went something like this
-------------


*gazing out our bedroom window at the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen*

Kristi: "Sweetie, how come we never pop out the screen of our window and sit on the roof and watch the sunset together? Or the fireworks?"

Blaine: "Because it is bad for the roof"

--------------

Eat your heart out ladies because he is ALL mine ; )

Decisions

Because I have been swamped with making life changing decisions lately and because I've have been making those decisions rather poorly, last week I decided I needed something really trivial to stew about. So even though our cruise isn't for another six months it became my life purpose to find a swimming suit for the cruise. I mean really, packing, cleaning and finding renters for our house can wait for another day.

Budgeting how we can afford to keep an empty house in Texas, an apartment in Utah and utility bills in both...eh, surely I can figure that out later.

We are hemorraging money but certainly that can wait for another day.

Who cares about that new traffic ticket (with three accompanying violations for missing insurance and expired registation and inspection!)?

Nevermind that the movers are coming a day late and thus eliminating entirely my cleaning day.

None of this matters because there are only 180 days left to find a proper swimming suit.

Priorities people.

I had it narrowed down to these three...

Choice 1 from Layers

Choice 2 from Lands End

Choice 3 from Girls4sport (hello modest!)

I just wished I could see them in person before I made a decision.

Then a couple of days ago Blaine and I had the chance to go to Schlitterbahn; while standing in line for one of the rides I noticed someone who was wearing swimmingsuit choice #2. I recognized the swimmingsuit from the back and I thought it would be a good chance to see what the suit looked like in person, so I tapped the shoulder of the person wearing the suit.

And around turned someone who had to be at least 65 years old, maybe 70.

I asked if her suit was from Lands End and she replied that indeed, it was. I told her that I really liked it and was considering getting it.

With that she looked me up and down and said, "you'll love it...it's really slimming!"

And in one fell swoop I realized that not only do I have an undeniable muffin top but also the sense of style of a senior citizen.

Awesome.

Ten thousand spoons

It's been one of those weeks folks. You know the kind.

No I didn't murder someone in the garage. I guess that is something to be thankful for! I invited some friends over last minute for dinner. I had to run to the store to get spaghetti sauce (running to the store with my three kids takes about an hour minimum). As I was opening the door to unload the groceries...I don't know, the fates just frowned upon me.

A few days later I planned a giant playdate. You know the kind, where you send out an email to everyone you've ever known and tell them about the awesome fountains to play in downtown? You know the ones that are worth the thirty minute ride in the sweltering heat?

The best part of all is that last time I planned a giant playdate I had no carseats so wound up not showing up myself.

I'm glad some people still show up when I plan things!

The butterfly effect...

Have I told you about our duplex in Provo? I came home from Oregon for a long weekend to find a place for us to live upon our return. There was a little duplex on 9th E that had been remodeled on the inside, it looked great! I made the decision and looked forward to moving back to Utah to live in such a cute little duplex.


When we pulled up in our moving truck and opened the door to our new place Blaine was thrilled! It looked awesome. We went from room to room checking our new place out. Then we got to the bathroom. The tub was full, FULL of raw sewage. It was disgusting. We called the property manager "JR" who informed us that there wasn't much he could do about it until after the weekend.


So we turned off the water and had no water for a couple days and a tub full of raw sewage.


That was just the beginning.


Gwen was learning to crawl and as she crawled her legs and arms would turn black. The carpet was covered in a layer of grime that came off when crawled upon.

We were promised a storage shed...JR hired the drinking trio of hicks on the other half of the duplex to build it for us. He promised them a six pack of beer to build our shed. I remember the night they finished as they walked past our front door they said, "if they wanted a professional job they should have hired a professional".

It was miserable. We had signed a year lease and we were in pure misery living there.

The ceiling started bulging with water from a broken pipe and mysteriously a brown stain was mutating in the corner and getting bigger.

I told Blaine we had to get out.


Then by a strange string of events we got an opportunity...an internship with IBM in Minnesota...the only stipulation? We had to be there in the beginning of January. We were in the middle of school, the middle of a contract for the worlds worst apartment and we had a trip to Disneyland planned.


Plus, who in there right mind would live in Minnesota? I mean did people even really live there?

Then a light clicked ...moving to Minnesota meant leaving the death trap that was our apartment and the fuddy duddy landlord (who on a recent call to ask him to fix something pertinent, like our water when it got shut off because he hadn't paid the bill replied..."I can't do everything, I'm only one person").


So we went for it. We moved to Minnesota.


I think you know I loved it there, that isn't the point of this post. While there a new family moved in. The Worthington's. They had a little boy about Gwen's age and we met them at a dinner at a friends house. Katie was a riot. I wish I could go into more detail but suffice it to say that at our first meeting I came away thinking she was awesome, but that our personalities weren't a very good fit.

Little did I know! Katie and I hit it off smashingly and what's more, our husbands and kids got along great as well. I have awesome fond memories of Katie! But that isn't the point of this post.


When Katie heard I was moving to Round Rock, TX she mentioned she had a friend who lived here. She suggested I give her a call to find out what neighborhood to live in. I didn't want to call some random person! I could find my own place!


After having lived here for about a month Katie encouraged me to look in my ward directory to see if her friend per chance was in my ward. I looked and her friend's name was in my directory! I hadn't met this person in church but figured I would give her a call and see if she and her family wanted to come over for dinner.


Turns out they had been visiting family for a while but we scheduled a time for them to come over once they got back in town.


It was weird inviting someone over who I had never seen, but if she was good enough for Katie I was certain she was good enough for me.


And guess what I saw when I opened my door that night to meet my friend's friend?





And I've never been so grateful for raw sewage!